“Encryption is inexorably tied to our national interests. It is a safeguard for our personal secrets and economic prosperity. It helps to prevent crime and protect national security." – A report from the bipartisan House Judiciary Committee & House Energy and Commerce Committee

Which Backup Products Are Good Ones?

In my recent article, US Hospital Pays $55,000 to Hackers after Ransomware Attack, I referred to “all good backup products.” That obviously leads to the question, “Which backup products are good ones?” I do not have a list of all good backup products for all operating systems, especially for those that are designed for use in large data processing centers. I am sure there must be dozens of such products. However, here are a few good ones I am aware of:

If you know of more good backup products that back up everything, including hidden files, operating system files, multiple versions of backups, as well as files that have been deleted or overwritten locally, please post a comment below and tell everyone of the product. Also, the product must encrypt the backed up files for security reasons.

There are multiple versions of Mozy, some for personal use and others for use in data centers and other applications. I will assume you are asking about Mozy Home.

Mozy Home is an excellent program (in my opinion) for backing up data files. However, it won’t back up the operating system, hidden files, the disk drive’s boot record, the Windows Registry, or other items needed to perform a COMPLETE RESTORE after a hard drive is replaced or re-formatted. As a result, if you have to replace a disk or re-format the drive. you first must re-install the operating system and then all the programs you have been using. (You did keep all your disks, right? Even the operating system disk?) That might take a day or longer. Then you are ready to use Mozy Home to restore your data files.

Mozy file backup is not an imaging service; Mozy is not designed to backup system files or program files such as registries, operating systems, or installed applications. Files backed up this way cannot be restored and deployed successfully. In most cases, attempting to backup these types of files will prevent Mozy from finishing a backup. Mozy Support cannot assist in troubleshooting backups that fail for this reason.

—[End of quote]—

I would never depend upon Mozy Home for backing up everything. I think some of the other Mozy products WILL do all that but at significantly higher prices. Admittedly, I have only used Mozy Home so I cannot say for sure.

There other consumer backup products that back up everything, including Cloudberry, Arq, Acronis, BounceBack, and some others that I cannot recall at the moment. All of them are aimed at consumers and have the capability of backing up and restoring everything, including the operating system.

Then there is my favorite: TimeMachine for Macintosh which is free and is included with every Macintosh although it is not a cloud backup product. It will back up and restore everything.

I researched all the consumer cloud backups Fall ’17 to recommend them to family (after Crashplan stopped it’s consumer plan), and from my research the only one which was easy enough for a non-IT person to use is Carbonite.

There are multiple versions of Carbonite, some for personal use and others for use in data centers and other applications. I will assume you are asking about using Carbonite’s version for a single computer.

Carbonite is an excellent program (in my opinion) for backing up data files. However, it won’t back up the operating system, hidden files, the disk drive’s boot record, the Windows Registry, or other items needed to perform a COMPLETE RESTORE after a hard drive is replaced or re-formatted.

See my comments about Mozy Home. The same comments apply to Carbonite’s cheapest version.

I would never depend upon Carbonite’s cheapest version for backing up everything. HOWEVER, if you do want to back up everything, including the operating system, hidden system files, and more, you can pay $599.99 per year for the version that works on computers and servers. See http://bit.ly/2mSZoh5 for the details.

I might pay for the expensive version if I ran a business on a server. However, there are more cost-effective products for individual desktop and laptop computers.

A long time user of Acronis, I’ve become a big fan of Macrium Reflect (https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree). Like Acronis, it’s easy to backup your system, but I found the restoration process easier than with Acronis. Macrium’s free product was so good I actually stepped up to the paid version. It only supports Windows and thus is no help with my Mac.

—> I am looking for a backup product that lets me specify the backup schedule. I do not want it interfering with my other programs,

Most of the better backup programs do not interfere with your normal operation of the computer. For instance, I have three backup programs running 24 hours a day in the computer I am using at this moment. One backs up EVERYTHING to a local hard drive plugged into the computer’s USB port, a second backs up all my documents and email messages to Amazon S3 file storage service, and the third backs up all my documents and email messages to a different file storage service in the cloud that uses servers outside of North America. Even with three backup programs running 24 hours a day, I never notice any slowdown or other problems in my computer.

That said, the one that backs up EVERYTHING to a local hard drive plugged into the computer’s USB port can be scheduled to run only at certain times, such as 3 AM. That program is called TimeMachine and is included free of charge with every Macintosh. The one that backs up all my documents and email messages to Amazon S3 file storage service also has a similar capability. You can tell it to only make backups once a day and then tell it to only run at 3 AM.

Thanks, Dick. I should have been more specific. I’ve had problems with them interfering with both Second Site and TMG operations. Apparently, the PC version of TimeMachine is DeepFreeze, an entirely different program that works differently. (It’s unnerving that its description is in broken English.) I guess I’ll just have to wait… and pray that my jerry-rigged system holds up.

OK, I have never heard of DeepFreeze. However, I do believe several other backup programs for Windows will work smoothly in background without the Windows user even being aware that they are making backups at the moment.

I know of 2 or 3 others who have had to turn off their backup and anti-virus programs to upload SS smoothly. I think it’s sporadic. It’s especially a problem if the operations are overlapping, I think.

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